Thank you for the tag @whatsintheboxmh @heartstringsduet @nisbanisba @annoyingcloudearthquake

@carlossreaders @strandnreyes @bonheur-cafe @lemonlyman-dotcom

@chicgeekgirl89 @emsprovisions @rangersoup @sanjuwrites 🧡

“I’m such a mess,” TK laughs without smiling. “Must have been a real treat coming home to this.”

“Hey. No. Look at me,” Carlos commands softly, even though TK is pinned beneath him and can do nothing but. Running his fingers through his husband’s floof of hair, Carlos goes on, “You are more beautiful to me today than ever before.”

“Shut up.”

“It’s true though.”

“It’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

“I’m a mess. The house is a mess. I couldn’t get Jonah settled, so I couldn’t really unpack and start making things nicer. We have peeling wallpaper. Weeds growing in the gutter. The porch roof–”

“I’m going to fix up the porch!” Carlos declares grandly, for some reason deepening his voice. “That’s a me job, okay?”

“And I found three snails in the downstairs bathroom, so they’re getting in somehow.”

Carlos rises up from TK slightly, hovering over him. In a much smaller voice, he says, “Snails?”

WIP Wednesday Chapter 5 of the Lone Ranger

Thanks for the tags @lemonlyman-dotcom @nisbanisba @annoyingcloudearthquake @emsprovisions and @heartstringsduet

Here's the long overdue Chapter Five of The Lone Ranger!

Read on AO3

Tags under the cut

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday. Here's a bit from the next chapter of I'm way too good at bad decisions, which I'm not sure yet when it'll be up! I have an interview tomorrow and I'd love some good vibes about it if you can send some my way 💕

“Hey,” Carlos says, aiming for casual as he slides up beside TK at the bar.

“Hey,” TK greets back, leaning forward to nudge his shoulder with Carlos’s. “You look good.”

“Thanks,” Carlos’s smile brightens, warmth flooding his belly. “So do you.”

TK looks away, his sultry smile turning bashful at the sign of a compliment. “Thanks,” he says softly. “Are you going to order a drink, or do you wanna dance?”

“Oh, hell no,” Marjan stops the two right there. “Y’all are not abandoning us so quickly. Get a drink Carlos, because I think we’re owed a story. I thought y’all hated each other.”

“Oh that was before the breakfast date and morning hookup,” Nancy purrs, her eyes gleaming. 

“What!” Marjan’s eyes light up as well as she looks between Nancy and then TK and Carlos. “What’s the tea??”

“There’s no tea, Marj,” Carlos groans. “TK and I ran into each other on our run this morning and decided to have breakfast together.”

“That’s not the whole story,” Marjan quirks a perfectly manicured brow.

“Oh, trust me, TK was being an annoying little bitch about the details too,” Nancy quips.

“Holy shit,” TK rolls his eyes. “It’s my business, not y’all’s.”

“No but you made it our business,” Nancy bites back. 

“Alright, alright, how about we order drinks and go somewhere more private,” Carlos says finally. “We all barely know each other, so why don’t we try getting to know each other?”

Good morning! Thank you for the tags @whatsintheboxmh @heartstringsduet @nisbanisba @annoyingcloudearthquake @carlossreaders @bonheur-cafe 💕

When Jonah’s dressed in his Bluey pajamas and ready to be tucked into bed, he crawls into Carlos’s lap and demands a reading of The Monster at the End of This Book, complete with all the goofy voices that Jonah and TK have decided Carlos does best.

He makes a game of trying to convince Jonah not to turn the pages, that the closer they get to the end, the closer they get to the monster. Jonah laughs, reaching for the pages and turning them quickly, cackling when Carlos amps up his animated reading, pretending to get more and more panicked about the monster at the end of the book.

He tickles Jonah’s tummy when they get to the final page, eliciting a happy, high-pitched squeal.

“What a brave boy,” he praises. “You weren’t afraid of the monster.”

“He’s a FRIENDLY MONSTER, Papa!”

“You’re right,” he agrees, kissing Jonah’s head. “It’s just lovable, furry old Grover. Who could be scared of him?”

He allows himself a moment to soak in this new life of his, in his cozy yet slightly impractical home, surrounded by his beautiful family.

He loves the way he feels with Jonah curled in his lap, giggling at his words and clutching at his shirt with a tiny fist. Loves the way Jonah loudly demands more books while TK crowds up next to them on the couch cushion, lightly teasing him and joining in with Jonah’s demands. And he thinks, maybe, he hasn’t fucked up this whole dad thing as much as he feared.

"What's that?"

Carlos glances at his rearview mirror to see Jonah tracing something along the air with his finger pointed towards the window. When he looks out of it, he is met with the waxing crescent moon smiling down at all of them from across the grass field.

"That's the moon."

"It's looking at me." There is a slight frown to his voice like he's not sure how he feels about that.

Carlos hums, a smile on his lips and a soft chuckle from TK in his ear. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Why?"

"Why?" Carlos purses his lips as Jonah exclaims a 'yeah' that gets lost to the hum of the engine and the tranquility of the night. He tries to come up with an answer to something he doesn't actually know with something that he knows is true.

Instead his searching eyes lock with TK's for just a moment. His green eyes sparkling in the moonlight like stars, soft and mirthful and fond, in that way that only happens when he's looking at him and is thinking he's found his way home.

He finds his answer.

"Because it loves you, baby."

"It does?"

"Of course it does." Carlos spares a glance to Jonah again, now straining against his seatbelt, hand splayed out as if reach out to touch moon. "There's so much to love."

thanks @heartstringsduet @nisbanisba @ladyknight1512 @whatsintheboxmh @carlossreaders !

“TK?”

TK inhales sharply and looks over his shoulder at Carlos. His hair is still damp from the shower they shared when they got here. Now, TK is in a pair of his own shorts that he left here last time he slept over and one of Carlos’ hoodies as they prepare a batch of soup. “Sorry, what?”

Carlos studies him for a moment, likely able to tell that his head isn’t totally here. “I said you can add that to the pot when you’re done.”

TK looks down at his half-chopped onion. Apparently he stopped cutting when he zoned out, which is probably for the best. “Oh. Okay.”

TK turns his body around, squared up to his cutting board again, but he feels Carlos step up behind him. Then, a hand lands on his hip. “Something bothering you?”

“No,” TK mumbles as he starts chopping again.

He doesn’t want to get into it right now. They’re having a nice time. Carlos put on some music and there’s the scent of Italian sausage browning in the pan and TK doesn’t want to spend all of their time together thinking and talking about work. He starts dicing again, trying to make up for lost time so the onion can still get added when it’s supposed to.

“You’re a little spacey,” Carlos teases lightly, and TK frowns. He’s not meaning to be. He just can’t help it.

He looks over to Carlos, those big brown eyes filled with such concern. “Sorry, I—”

A sharp sting erupts on his thumb and TK hisses, the knife clattering to the cutting board. He looks down just in time to see deep red blood bubble to the surface and then Carlos is there with a towel, covering it and putting on pressure.

“Come on,” he urges. “Bathroom.”

tagging @paperstorm @orchidscript @ironheartwriter @tellmegoodbye @theghostofashton @reyesstrand @rmd-writes @thisbuildinghasfeelings @emsprovisions @eclectic-sassycoweyes @welcometololaland @alrightbuckaroo @freneticfloetry @lightningboltreader @liminalmemories21 @basilsunrise @bonheur-cafe @butchreyes @chicgeekgirl89 @carlos-in-glasses @carlos-tk @henrygrass + open tag!!

i believe this is my first time posting this fic on wip wednesday!

“Can I be like you when I grow up?”

TK frowns. He doesn’t want Jonah to ever be anything like him. He swallows, “how do you mean?”

Jonah twists, looking up at his older brother with wonder in his dark eyes. His mothers eyes. His palm lands against TK’s, near his camera. “You’re cool, and people like you.”

TK sighs, and even with the lack of correct pronunciation, he understands.

“Jonah, you are already cool. And Charlie likes you, I love you.” He lightly tickles his stomach, “you can be whoever you want to be. You can be Jonah Robert Strand.”

Jonah grins, “whoever I want?”

TK nods, squeezing him tightly. “Whoever you want.”

WIP Wednesday

Turns out Mateo barely remembered anything.

Nancy had gotten out pen and paper and conducted a journalist worthy interview with the ghost but unfortunately they had gotten nowhere.

“Do you remember where you lived?” 

A shake of the head.

“What your job was?” 

Another no.

“Your friends?” 

Silence.

“Do you even remember your last name?” Nancy whispered gently. Mateo just sniffled softly, tears slipping down his face as he shook his head no once again. 

She stopped asking questions after that. 

After School is Carlitos and Mamá time, where he eats a big delicious snack and tells her all about his day, about what he learned, who he played with, what he read, what interesting clouds he’d seen, and she smiles and kisses his head and tells him what a smart, good boy he is, and asks if he wants more tortillas.

On this day, though, he comes home from school tired, his head aching, and he stares at his plate and picks at a concha. It tastes wrong, and his eyes well with tears when it hurts to swallow.

“Eat, eat, mijito,” his mom calls from the stove, and he forces himself to take another bite. When the tears spill over and he sobs a little at how wrong everything feels, Mama looks at him, then swiftly turns off the stove and hurries to his side. “Ay, mijo, qué te pasa, what’s wrong, what’s wrong? Tell Mamá,” she pleads as he sobs into her sweater.

“I don’t know,” he hiccups, rubbing his face on her shoulder.

She rocks him back and forth, presses her lips to his forehead. “Ay, Carlitos, you’re so warm.”

“I’m cold,” he argues, because he is now, shaking in his t-shirt, even though he’s all wrapped up in Mamá’s warm hug.

“Ay, mi amor. Pobrecito, let’s get you to bed.”

Before he knows it he is in his pajamas, snuggled up with Kique the koala in his parents’ big bed. Mamá flits in and out, taking his temperature and making him sip tea and soup and swallow vile bitter red medicine he wants to spit right back out. “You need to take it if you want to feel better,” Mamá says.

Carlos cries but obeys. “Mami?” he rasps through his tears afterwards.

“Sí, mijo.” Mamá’s fingers are soft on his face, swiping away tears and combing his hair back.

“Can I have a story? Kique wants one about Australia.”

“Claro que sí, mi corazón.” She gets into the bed with him, and he burrows into her side as she wraps her arms around him and Kique both. That’s all he really wanted, anyway.

Officer Stevenson strokes his handlebar mustache. He looks older these days, thinner but sharper for it.  “You owe me one, Reyes.” Turning his attention to Jonah, he puts his thumbs in his belt, draws himself up taller. “And you, young man? I don’t want to see your or your friends out vandalizing this town, you hear me? Your dad can’t always bail you out.”

There used to be this reflex, this bracing each time someone mentioned Carlos being Jonah’s dad like they would surely be corrected. Carlos? God no, he’s not my dad! 

It never happened. Not even when Jonah was little and he could hold his tongue even less than he can now.

Carlos stopped bracing for it. Maybe he should have, because Stevenson turns to his car, only to turn one more time to say, “Don’t let him off too easy. You know, your pops would have never let you off with just a warning. You’d be in the back of my cop car, stewing there longer than most kids, just to teach you a lesson.”

The worst thing about this is that Carlos immediately believes Stevensn’s words. There’s no proof for it, no trouble big enough that Carlos or his sisters ever got into. For all he knows, his dad would have called in a favor too. Years passing by and he still feels confused about his childhood, about his relationship to his father.

But it pales in comparison to the old wound of what he was robbed of. He wishes he could call him up now, ask him what he would do. What he had said to Luisa when she came home drunk, because Carlos had to leave the room back then. What he would say about Carlos being a father-figure and if he thought he did a good job.

He feels Jonah move under the hand Carlos kept on his shoulder. “He’s-- he’s a real asshole.” For a moment Carlos is angry before he understands Jonah means Stevenson, not his father. “Don’t listen to h'm.”

“Don’t insult law enforcers,” Carlos chides, because he has to. He also has to kiss his kid’s head to thank him for the bit of solidarity that comes so naturally to Gwyn’s sons. “Now come on. We’ll talk in the car.”

OPEN TAG &

WIP Wednesday

happy Wednesday!

this art time lapse

arts I'm drawing now

it really does only take one basket of laundry you procrastinate putting away before your whole life turns to shit huh

Carlos stalls at the steps of the rig, looking both unbreakable and lost. The scent of his blood mixed with silver twists TK’s stomach. Acid runs up his esophagus and sweat pools under the shirt that got damp despite his rain jacket. 

“What are you standing out there for?” he asks Carlos. “Come in.”

Carlos’ jaw works, his body speaking louder than his flat voice. “Are you sure you want me in there with you?”

A memory of being spread on that very stretcher, only this time by an alpha that his body wants despite what his heart yells. 

“Why? Would inviting you in be dangerous to me?”

“No!” Carlos’ panic is back, as loud as it was when he tried to keep the 126 away from the scene just minutes before. “No, I’d never hurt you.”

TK feels his mouth curl into a cruel smile. He doesn’t have to say anything for Carlos to understand that he’s already broken that promise. They both smell of pain now. There is less satisfaction in it than he assumed there would be.

Twisting to grab the sulfate ointment and dressing, TK orders, “Sit down.” OPEN TAG &

“You busy tonight?”

TK bites his lip to keep from smiling. “No, but fair warning that I’m not up for much more than eating and relaxing.”

He hopes Carlos knows he means relaxing as in being on Carlos’ couch or bed, watching a movie or getting each other off. He’s open to either, both, it’s just that he wants to be in one of their apartments, not off doing something. Not that they really do that. They don’t go on dates, they just hang out at each other's places in various stages of undress. There’s usually an orgasm involved at some point, except for that one night they just slept, and TK isn’t exactly sure what they’re doing. It’s not a relationship. That much he’s sure about.

“Come over. I’ll make you dinner and then we’ll…”

“We’ll…” TK eggs him on and Carlos smirks.

“See where the night takes us.”

open tag! +